Márquez storms to debut win in Moto2

In his 50th Grand Prix start, Marc Márquez (Team CatalunyaCaixa Repsol) celebrated his first victory in the Moto2 category in his rookie season at the Monster Energy Grand Prix de France. The Spaniard grabbed victory after a fierce battle throughout the race, having started from sixth on the grid. Yuki Takahashi (Gresini Racing) held off Stefan Bradl (Viessmann Kiefer Racing) for second place after a titanic tussle on the final lap.

The Spaniard took the first Suter victory of the season as three different motorcycles finished inside the top three, with Takahashi on the Moriwaki and Bradl on the Kalex. Márquez, who had failed to finish the first two races of the year and had zero points to his name prior to Round 4, fought through a gaggle of riders to take the leading spot from Thomas Lüthi (Interwetten Paddock Moto2) in the final laps. As drops of rain began to fall in the final six laps the reigning 125cc World Champion quickly pulled an advantage and crossed the line just under two seconds ahead of Takahashi to secure his 11th win in Grand Prix racing.

Gresini Racing’s Takahashi claimed his first back to back rostrum finishes in his career with second place, after he had snuck past Bradl towards the end of the race and then began his dice with the eventual race winner. Championship leader and pole sitter Bradl had led from the start of the race but after Lüthi had overtaken him on lap 15, Takahashi then sent the German rider wide which allowed Márquez through into a rostrum position. The Kalex rider maintains his lead at the top of the Championship standings, with a 28-point gap over his nearest rival, Julián Simón.

Simón (Mapfre Aspar) demoted Lüthi to fifth position on the final lap. The Swiss rider, who has still yet to achieve his first victory in the Moto2 class, was unable to pull away at the front when he was originally leading and was caught and passed. Aleix Espargaró (Pons HP 40) achieved his best result of the season with sixth place. The Spaniard had been part of the leading group for the first half of the race but faded as the race went on.

Seventh went to Simone Corsi (Ioda Racing Project) who was involved in a fight with Bradley Smith (Tech 3) who finished eighth. The British rider made up many positions at the start to claim more points in his rookie Moto2 season. Dominique Aegerter (Technomag-CIP) continued his good form from Estoril with ninth place, ahead of Alex de Angelis (JiR Moto2) in tenth.

Race results continue to elude Scott Redding (Marc VDS Racing) who dropped down to 12th on lap one from his second row start and eventually finished in 16th place. American Kenny Noyes (Avintia-STX) was one place behind in 17th with Australian Anthony West (MZ Racing) in 25th and Scotsman Kev Coghlan (Team Aeroport de Castelló) 27th.

Andrea Iannone (Speed Master) who was second in the Championship going into this race, crashed out on lap one, the Italian rider was unhurt. The only other rider to crash on the first lap of the race was Santiago Hernández (SAG Team) who had a huge highside. Mika Kallio (Marc VDS Racing) retired in the early stages with a clutch problem. Ricky Cardús (QMMF Racing Team) was a non-finisher after crashing in he latter stages, as was Axel Pons (Pons HP 40).